When you do alot of public speaking, you quickly learn the definition of a “great question” from the audience.

It’s the question that you have a ready answer for - one that helps reinforce a point you made earlier in your talk.

Here’s an example:

Question: Does my Fair Trade store/market need fairly traded youth soccer balls?

Answer: Great question! Yes, it does. And I know where you can find a supply of them.

:)

Here’s what Dick Meyer, proprietor of the Traditions Fair Trade store in Washington state, says about our fairly traded sports balls:

Fair Trade Sports balls fill an important niche in getting new groups of people aware of the importance of fair trade. The quality of the product and the service from Fair Trade Sports provide great opportunities to reach schools and athletic organizations to have them buy responsibly.

Another proponent of fairly traded sports balls is Sarah Davison-Tracy from Colorado. She founded the Seeds of Exchange market and recently commented:

The prompt delivery and personal attention from Fair Trade Sports for our wholesale ordering is terrific! Their fairly traded sports balls are the perfect addition to our monthly markets and are a great complement to our Fair Trade product selection.

You can order volumes of fairly traded futsal balls, soccer balls, volleyballs, and rugby balls from our site - your volume discounts are automatically applied - or by contacting us directly with your order details. Wholesale price guide here.

Please allow me to cash in on any personal goodwill I may have built up with you to ask you, our blog readers, to do me this one thing: take 10 minutes to learn more about a subject normally considered taboo for discussion: modern day slavery.

Visit the site.

I took 50% of my working time over the last six weeks away from Fair Trade Sports to help some friends build and launch a new abolitionist movement.

The Not For Sale Campaign is based on a powerful book and has two films associated with it (Amazing Grace opens today nationwide), but it needs a bit more…you. I know that last sentence sounded like blatant marketing-speak, but consider it anyway.

27 million slaves exist in our world today; it is a $32 billion business. Please take 10 minutes sometime today to read through a bit of the site. Or a couple of hours this weekend to watch Amazing Grace.

Thanks for your time. And, of course, I’d love your feedback when you get a chance, particularly on the NFSC store (aka the “Freedom Store”) that we built. We’ll be adding new products monthly.

If you feel inspired, forward this post to a few of your select friends and colleagues to ask them the same favor: just a bit of time to learn more, and then do something to help.

Just got back from Boston - a beautiful city currently wearing a blanket of ice from a recent Nor’easter - for a Fair Trade event called Convergence.

Convergence is an annual event that gathers 300+ Fair Trade activists from high school and college campuses nationwide, hosted by United Students for Fair Trade.

Lots of learning and planning goes on during the multi-day event. This year I saw and heard alot of excitement from both high school students and college students about bringing fairly traded sports balls to their campuses.

Check out what Cabini College in PA has already launched - the country’s first Fair Trade Wallyball Tournament, featuring our Fair Trade Sports volleyballs.

This “Play Fair, Trade Fair” event is part of a larger CRS campaign the students and faculty are pursuing on campus. Well done, Cavaliers!

Congratulations to the 10 winners of the Grist 2006 fundraising campaign contest! Your donations helped Grist meet its financial goals for ending 2006 on an upswing and starting 2007 off with a bang. Your trio of Fair Trade Sports balls is shipping out to you today.

We hope you enjoy your new Fair Trade volleyball, rugby ball, and soccer ball. And thank you again for your donation to Grist - our beacon in the smog - bringing all of us independent environmental news with a strong dose of humor.

Ever wonder what a Fair Trade fashion show might look like? If you live anywhere near DC, you can find out on February 28.

A consortium of organizations* is producing the Fashion 4 Development show in the IFC Auditorium, to be followed by a reception at Pangea Artisan Market & Café.

We are joining a host of other companies supplying the show with fairly traded items, including Ten Thousand Villages, World of Good, Pangea, Be Sweet, American Apparel, Edun, Global Mama’s, Creative Women, Global Handicrafters, and many more.

If you are one of our East Coast readers, I’d encourage you to check it out. Ping Sheela Bykadi for more information.


* including the IFC, World Bank, DC Week for Fashion, Fair Trade Federation, and the Margaret McNamara Memorial Fund.